All roads lead to Roma 2024. The day after the announce of Femke Bol‘s presence at the next European Athletics Championships, today the Swedish star Armand Duplantis has been officially pre-selected by the Swedish athletics federation to take part in the competition to be held from 7 to 12 June at the Olympic Stadium and the Foro Italico Park.
Duplantis is the ruler of the pole vault, one of the symbols of athletics in the world, a champion capable of attracting the attention of the public all over the planet. “Mondo” holds the pole vault world record and of all the major crowns (Olympics, World Athletics Championships, European Athletics Championships).
The next june in Rome he will try to win his third consecutive European gold medal after his triumphs in Berlin 2018 and Munich 2022.
For the 24-year-old coached by dad Greg and mum Helena, it will be a return in style at the Olympic Stadium in Rome, where he has already triumphed at the ‘Golden Gala Pietro Mennea’ Diamond League meeting in the 2020 season, which was conditioned by the pandemic: on that evening Duplantis climbed to a height of 6.15, that was the world record at the time, unfortunately in front of empty stands due to the Covid restrictions.
Now he is looking to compete in front of a warm crowd at the Olympic Stadium. Fans are waiting for his jumps under the ‘Curva Nord’ stands for the qualifying round scheduled for the morning session of Monday 10 June and for the final scheduled for the last evening session of the competition, Wednesday 12 June (tickets and subscriptions on sale here).
Duplantis won also the gold medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, two world gold medals at the World Athletics Championships outdoor in Eugene and Budapest, and other two world gold medals at the World Athletics Championships indoor in Belgrade and Glasgow.
Mondo is still moving up the limits of the pole vaulte: in the last four years he has already collected seven world records, step by step, from 6.17 in Torun in 2020 to 6.23 in Eugene last season. Dreaming of a new world record at the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships is not impossible.
Credit photo: Colombo/FIDAL